PLANT APOCALYPSE

The race is on to document and protect the world's plant and fungi species... and everything is at stake if we lose

- DR MATILDA BROWN

In the 19th century, Charles Darwin dreamed of a list which would describe all of the world's known plants and where they could be found. This October, the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew fulfilled that dream by publishing what has been described as the most comprehensive plant database ever produced.

But the world has changed since Darwin dreamed up the idea. Hence the report, named the State of the World's Plants and Fungi 2023, not only details the discoveries of over 18,000 new plant and fungi species since 2020, but also the incredible level of extinction risk they face.

Over 200 scientists from 30 countries were involved in producing the 60,000 peer-reviewed species conservation assessments that underpin the report. We spoke to one of those scientists Dr Matilda Brown, conservation science analyst at Royal Botanical Gardens Kew - to learn more about it.

WHAT DID THE REPORT FIND?

The report provides a global health check on the world's plants and fungi, and it comes down to two big numbers.

First, using new modelling, we found that 45 per cent of all flowering plants are threatened with extinction.

And second: we found that, of the species we have yet to describe (in a formal scientific paper), in the next years and decades over three quarters - 77 per cent - are already threatened with extinction. For fungi, it's harder to get that big picture of extinction risk, because we've only described around 10 per cent of fungal species. And of those, less than one per cent have conservation assessments [papers that detail how at risk they are].

WHAT COULD WE LOSE?

A world without plants and fungi is a world without humans. Plants underpin all aspects of humanity: they're what we eat, what we wear, what we get our medicines from.